Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

Origin unknown.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin uncertain.

Examples

The damsel, now-a-days, who marries a lad younger than herself, is laying up a large stock of pother, which is to bother her when she becomes thirty -- for even young ladies, you know, after forty, may become thirty.

At the poem's centre is a debate about "exact thinking", and how such thinking translates into action, and whether emotion as opposed to reason is ever a justifiable ground for action, and whether action is ever worth it in the first place - though of course if were to be so, then it must first be based on absolutely exact thinking - and, as any sensible reader will swiftly deduce, this is exactly the sort of over-analytical "pother" (Claude's word) which is most discouraging to a woman who might be inclined to think that you might be inclined to be in love with her.